Whiskey Lullaby
by Remmie's Girl
Summary: Sev... revolver... bed room... Original character... Same revolver... bedroom...


Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the characters. That gold mine belongs to J.K. Rowling. (If I did I wouldn't have to worry about college.) I also do not own the song Whiskey Lullaby. That is the property of Brad Paisley and his record company. I do however own Seliniva Sarah Snape. She is an original character that I came up with.

Whiskey Lullaby

He walks in to the Three Broomsticks and sits at the bar. "Rosemerta, give me a firewhiskey and scotch neat. Make them doubles."

"Are you trying to kill yourself, Severus?"

"That's the general idea."

"Now what's wrong?"

"Nothing... Just give me the drinks and I'll get out of the way." She obeys, and though she wants to pry, she knows he won't tell her a thing until he's inebriated, so she holds her tongue. She watches as Severus Snape mixes the two drinks together; then slams the drink. He shows no sign that he just drank enough alcohol to make a man twice his size a bit tipsy.

"Damn Snape alcohol tolerance!" he rages at no one in particular. "Another of each, Rosemerta." Again she obeys and again he mixes them and drinks them down.

Finally, after about six rounds of double shots of firewhiskey and scotch, he begins his tale. "She threw me out, Rosie. She has another lover... He's different... nothing like me. She said that's why she chose him. He treated her with love and respect... he loved her for who she is not who he wanted her to be... I only ever loved her for who she was! I never tried to change her in anyway... Did I? No of course not... She is just a gold-digger! That's all she wanted from me! My father's money! It's not even mine... At least not yet. I haven't received my inheritance... I can't collect that money until my marriage has been in effect for 20 years. We only made it to 18... Not that money means anything if one doesn't have anyone to spend it on..."

She put him out

Like the burnin' end of a midnight cigarette.

She broke his heart...

He spent his whole life tryin' to forget...

We watched him drink his pain away

A little at a time

But he never could get drunk enough

To get her off his mind...

"Hey handsome, wanna dance?" a woman next to him asks.

"Shh... ure..." he slurs thorough the fog that has settled over his mind. She leads him out as "Valentine" by Martina McBride begins to play. As they dance, Severus lets his mind wonder... He remembers the picture she gave him on their wedding night... The pose was... thought provoking. "So you'll always have a piece of me close to you even when I am not..." she had said. He remembers her priceless facial expressions when he did something strange or unexpected... (Well that was strange and unexpected for a Snape...) As he looks at the woman in his arms, he notices how much she looks like his wife, Seliniva... The dark hair, the easy smile, the shimmering eyes... He pushes her away from him and takes off at a run. He bolts to the bar, slams down two Galleons, and rushes out of the building. He runs all the way back to Hogwarts and down to the dungeons.

He reaches his office/chambers in record time, and goes to the armoire. He pulls out a hidden chamber and grabs the revolver hidden there. His maternal grandfather gave him this revolver for his seventeenth birthday. As he loads the gun he thinks about the letters he needs to leave and decides to just write one letter and a short note... The letter he'll leave for Dumbledore to find on his desk and the other will be clutched in his hand.

After the gun is loaded, he picks up two pieces of parchment, one larger than the other and goes to his desk. He picks up a quill and on the larger piece of parchment writes:

Dear Dumbledore,

This is my suicide/goodbye/resignation letter. My wife has left me and I can go on living no longer. I do this now to give you the opportunity to find a new Potions master for the next school year. I am no longer fit to teach or to live. Good-bye, dear Dumbledore. Tell Argus farewell for me and please don't let Minerva try to romanticize me as I was never a favorite of anyone in the school. Also do not sugar-coat what you tell the press/students/rest of the world. I go to a different place than this morbid existence on this mortal plane. Please don't grieve too long. This body fades but maybe something of my teaching will live on in those dunderheads you call students. Adieu.

Severus Soterious Snape

On the little piece he writes:

I'll love her 'til I die and beyond.

Then he presses wax on to the large parchment and presses his personal seal into the wax. The snake is wrapped around a lily. He lays it on his desk; then clutching the smaller piece; he goes to the bedroom and kneels in the center of the bed. He puts the gun to his head and pulls the trigger. His body stiffens then goes limp.

Until the night...

He put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger

And finally drank away her memory...

Life is short but this time it was bigger

Than the strength he had to get up of his knees...

Filtch is on patrol when the earth splitting, soul shattering bang rings though the halls from the direction of Snape's office/chambers. Though he doesn't much care for human companionship, preferring his cat Mrs. Norris, he holds a certain respect and admiration for the Potions Master. As he bursts in the door he calls out to Severus. "Professor? Are you al-"His voice dies suddenly as he sees Snape laying face down on the bed, one hand clutching a revolver and the other a piece of parchment.

We found him with his face down in the pillow

With a note that said I'll love her 'til I die...

"Look at all the people that came to say goodbye to Snape," Harry muses to Ron._ I miss his snide remarks and heated looks... Even his greasy hair. I miss his commanding presence and his silky dark voice... Why did you go, Professor? Why did you leave me?_

"Yeah, you'd never know what an arse he'd been in life," Ron snickers.

"Ron! Don't speak of the man that way! He's dead!" 'Mione says incredulously.

"Aw common Hermione. I was only kidding. I didn't mean it. Besides you said it yourself just the other day that you didn't care for the man. And he always found an excuse to take points from us in school."

"I don't care. We learned a lot in his class. Well at least I did. You two did nothing but screw around in there; you didn't even try."

Harry breaks in, "It's her..." His voice is little more than a growl. If looks could kill, Seliniva Sarah Snape would have died a thousand deaths in as short a time as it took Orpheus to lose his wife when he turned to look at her on the way back from Hades. After all Harry did like Snape in a twisted and masochistic way and she had stolen him from Harry the night they were married and he had never gotten over that. Now here she is flaunting her new beau and saying goodbye to Severus like he never meant a thing to anyone especially her. _HOW DARE SHE! HE MEANT EVERYTHING TO ME! _Harry thinks to himself as he lays a black rose on Severus' coffin.

We buried him beneath the willow

While the angels sang a whiskey lullaby...

La la la la la la la la la,

La la la la la la la la la.

Seliniva glides to the side of her husband's grave, and ignoring the deadly stares and hateful remarks she says, "Goodbye, Husband."

Three years have passed since Severus took his life, and Seliniva sits in the parlor looking at the pictures of their wedding. Tears streak her normally perfect face. That day was the first and only time she saw a genuinely happy smile on his otherwise somber face. Her picture self clings lovingly to picture Severus. He holds her tenderly smiling joyously at the camera.

Suddenly at the back of her mind she hears the voices of people from the last three years and the hurtful words they say drive daggers in to her already bleeding soul.

"She killed him you know."

"She turned him out. Broke his poor heart. Drove him mad ye ken?"

"He only ever loved her for who she was. Never asked her to change or do anything he wouldn't do for her."

"She's just a gold-digger. Looking for money. Severus only had the inheritance and he couldn't even touch that until he was married 20 years. A no good money leech. That's all she is."

She sniffs. "I killed my husband... They're right. I'm a no good money leech and a gold-digger..." she whimpers.

The rumors flew...

But no body knew how much she blamed herself

For years and years

She tried to hide the whiskey on her breath

She picks up a bottle of whiskey that Severus had been aging in the cellar, and takes a deep drink. Soon she is so intoxicated that she no longer feels anything except the loss of Severus and the guilt of knowing she is the reason. She strokes the picture of Severus in his dress robes. They are black, as usual, and embroidered with silver and platinum thread. She remembers his gentle hands, his tender kisses, his silky voice, his musky sent after their love-making sessions, and as she looks around she sees him everywhere... in the walls, the carpet, the drapes,... everything!

Then she realizes what she must do to make the guilt and pain stop. She goes to the armoire and pulls out the revolver that Severus used on himself. It's still loaded. He had placed another round in the chamber in case he missed the first time. "I'm coming, Sev... I'll join you soon. Maybe you'll forgive me when I get there," she slurs through the mist that has hidden her reasoning from her.

She finally drank her pain away

A little at a time

But she never could get drunk enough

To get him off her mind

She takes the picture and the revolver to the bed room. She kisses the picture lovingly, wishing it was Severus himself. "I'm so sorry Sev... I don't know what I was thinking..." She clutched the picture to her and kneels in the center of the bed. She closes her eyes and pulls the trigger. Her body stiffens for a moment then goes limp, and she falls.

Until the night...

She put that bottle to her head

And pulled the trigger

And finally drank away his memory

A servant comes in the next morning to bring her breakfast as usual... only to find his mistress dead with her face in the pillows.

Life is short

But this time it was bigger

Than the strength she had

To get up off her knees

We found her with

Her face down in the pillows

Clinging to his picture for dear life.

At the funeral only her servants and her brother were there to say goodbye. As per her final request she was buried next to Severus.

We laid her next to him

Beneath the willow

While the angels sang a whiskey lullaby

La la la la la la la la, la la la la la la la

La la la la la la la la, la la la la la la la.


End file.
